One A Day

[dnix71]

No a/c, gas for cooking, dry clothes on a wooden rack, one 13 watt cfl in front and one in back for outside lighting. Washing machine and irrigation pump still on the grid. Everything else (fridge and computer) on my panels.

[zap]

That's pretty nice... I'm jealous!

Do you have AC?  If so do you ever use it?

Nature's providing the AC here today.  20° and a fresh(and thankfully light and powdery)7 or so inches of global warming fallout.

[DamonHD]

Well four of us in our house consume just over 5kWh/day, does that count?

(We're in credit with our electricity company having paid out not that much more than you because we accidentally had net metering and it so upset the supply-chain computers that we were only billed for the highest reading that out meter hit before starting to go backwards for the whole year!)

But the nice thing is that we're generating about 50% more than we consume, so if I "only" spend US$400k on a 1MWh Vanadium-redox battery I could come off the grid except to export the excess!  B^>

Rgds

Damon

[dnix71]

I just smudged out my last name Zap. Yeah Google knows where you live.

[dnix71]

I have a window unit but don't use it. I was born and raised in Florida and didn't have a/c in the house until I was 6. The window unit I have doesn't get rid of the humidity very well unless it runs fulltime on high, so it doesn't seem worth it.

My bill would be $75 if I ran the a/c all the time.

[JW]

200 bucks a month for me, weither I use it or not.

I remember waking up at 3 in the morning (BING) this past summer, BECAUSE THE a/c unit took a crap...

I was out there with a flash light, pulling covers of off the compressor unit, had the DVOM out, checking the 221 circuit (whatever it takes 220, 221  and the 60hz 120vac relay starter, not long after that, I had the breaker panel cover off ( main one in the house) looking for an open circuit.

After some testing, I determined the starter capacitor was bad, said oh-well, layed on the couch and fell back asleep. I woke up just before work, with time for coffie, with my wife standing over me, stating, honey you need to put the house back together...

So as soon as I got a break from work that morning, I bought an aftermarket starting capacitor, and ran back home to istall it. The fellow at the appliance store was kind enough to test the old capacitor, after scwuinting at the meter, stated yep, that ones toast..

I then ran home, hooked up the cap, (i did draw a simple schematic with color code ref before disconnecting the first wire) slaped that thing in there, wraped it with some saran wrap, slamed the cover back on without the bolts. Fired up the a/c went back to work..

Its been working great ever since Im expecting the local fire dept to peek over my backyard fence and tell me saran wrap is not UL listed. LOL...

Best

Jeremy

[taylorp035]

I feel really bad since I am on the extreme opposite of the spectrum.  I have a all electric house with a geothermal systems for the heat and a/c.  In the summer, the air conditioner dumps heat into the hot water tank.

So far this year my usage is at about 35,000kwh... about 100-130 kwh a day in the winter, many times using most of my 200 amp service.

My lowest bill ever I think has been about $90 in the summer.

Highest =  8,000kwh, over $700, twice.

[zap]

taylorp035, I don't want to hijack dinx71's thread but can you elaborate on your house and geothermal system a little more.

The reason I ask is I'm familiar with ground source systems and something doesn't seem right at all with your figures.

Even if your house is poorly insulated I would expect lower numbers... it's almost as if your field is way undersized or your system was never tuned properly (or somehow went out of tune) or some part of the system has malfunctioned.

[bzrqmy]

How much solar?  I use in a day what you use in a month.

[richhagen]

Hi David, I'm still at nearly three times your utility draw for electricity. I need a few of those Florida sun hours, as this December has not been so good for solar here in Chicago.  On the bright side, the days are starting to lengthen now though.  My heat is natural gas and draws a multiple of the joules of energy that the electricity does too.  I would need much more conservation, or more roof space to become energy independant here, and with the urban environment, larger wind is not an option. Rich

[dnix71]

My uncle in Georgia just built a new home with a geothermal a/c system. 7 deep wells that each provide "1 ton" a/c equivalent. The wells are dry, they pump air up and down.

He and his wife were living in a mobile home and decided they didn't want to run to a shelter every time a tornado came near, so the new home with a shelter basement allows them to just leave the cows out in the field and hide out when the wind blows too hard.

[dnix71]

Maybe 1/4 a day in the winter, 1/2 in the summer. My panels are on the ground, since I rent, so there is more shading this time of year.

[defed]

good grief....my bill is $16 a month even if i use NO electricity.  that's just the service fee for them allowing me to have it.  my total bill is usually about $45/mo at an average of 250 kWh/mo.  so my actual electric usage is $30/mo.  if i ever get my 10' done, i might knock off $10/mo and if i ever get some solar, maybe a total $15 to $20 off per month.  for the amount of my bill, it would take forever to get payback from something other than DIY.

[dnix71]

It's not the money, it's having electricty after a hurricane. I had no power for 4 weeks after Wilma. It's amazing the stars you can see at night when there are no lights around. Burning candles for light isn't safe and eating canned food for weeks on end got old. There was no gas available for weeks because the pumps at Port Everglades were damaged by the storm, so generators were not very useful. Even if you had the foresight to stock up on fuel, it cost too much.

With a small solar setup and a 12v Engel, I can eat real food and have a fan and lights at night without running a generator. The only thing I haven't been able to find a good way to run from batteries is a clothes washer. The "Wonder Washer" ain't, it doesn't rinse or spin, so you may as well be doing it by hand.

[ghurd]

Cool!

I am guessing your batteries must be staying near full in decent sun.

And the controller is wasting a bit of available power.

Might be time to consider a grid tie inverter?

G-

[dnix71]

I can't legally grid-tie as a renter. There are three units, three meters but one service drop. If the landlord put up panels and grid tied, I don't think he would be allowed to sub-meter and split the bill. If he put it all back on the grid he could pocket the money and it might keep our rent down, depending on how much it cost overall.

With some minor tree trimming the whole roof could be panelled and see sun all year.

[independent]

Ok here goes.

We are on the grid but have taken the fridge off grid for the past 2 months. Have hot water on the night rate (approx. half the day rate). We are currently paying NZ26c per unit day rate, NZ15c per unit night rate. A unit is a kilowatt hour.

I have figures for the last 2 months (fridge off-grid), and then prior 6 months. Keep in mind it's just hit summer and so those first 6 months are Winter.

BTW we are saving about NZ$40-50 per month by having the water on the night rate (heating only between 11pm-7am). Also, it's not much hassle as some would believe as the hot water cylinder is modern and has an insulated "wrap" as well which helps keep the water warm well into the evening if no one has a shower in the morning. 2 of us in the household.

OK, our night rate usage is only hot water.

Last 2 months, 5.947kw/h per day

prior 6 months, 7.5kw/h per day (no surprise for Winter)

Here it get's interesting (to me anyway ;-)

Day rate (7am - 11pm), everything except the hot water.

Last 2 months, 1.4kw/h per day

Prior 6 months, 5.49kw/h per day

It's the fridge, and if we had our hot water on anything else (solar, wet back, LPG instant hot water), those figures would be our total daily usage rates.

The guzzling fridge has been pulled back into service. The off-grid fridge was a 1.89cuft (80-90lt) Norcold 12v and i could not keep up with the energy requirements with 170w of mono si solar. It would "run" the fridge but not keep up with any deficit (and run the fridge at the same time) if there were cloudy days.

This was a big surprise, how much energy a 12v fridge can take. The guzzler is a medium sized top fridge bottom freezer auto defrost model.

We are planning on a new system with our newly gained knowledge/experience.

[dnix71]

SunElec sells something like your Norcold, a side by side upright fridge/freezer, but it uses 85 watts running and 1.35kwh/day. It actually the same as most modern 120v frost-free upright fridges. That's nothing IF you are on-grid.

http://sunelec.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=383

The only advantage is it runs from 12v directly.

I use an Engel 40. It only uses 36 watts runnning. The next size up has a bigger compressor and the next size down uses the same compressor.

Just my porch lights (13 watt cfl's one in front and one in back) use 1/3 kwh a day, and I put a Kill-a-Watt meter on the washer (only 3 years old), and it uses 1/4 kwh per wash. No hot water to wash and only one standard 30 minute cycle.

[independent]

I've been following what you have been doing with your fridge and stuff. The norcold i have is for a yacht. It uses a sawafuji compressor like the engels. It uses 40w but cycles at least 50% because of the lack of insulation and front opening. Could of insulted but decided a smaller fridge will work better.

Bought an engel too but needed a 12/24v because of the losses in not being able to run the norcold  when fully charging my battery ( 12v only and Nickel Iron can get past the safe voltage (for a 12v fridge)  quickly).

[ghurd]

Maybe try a 9W CFL in the porch lights?

Might help to stick some AL muffler tape in the fixture.

It sounds silly, but sometimes 9W is about the same, and some reflector makes a huge difference.

G-

[dnix71]

The new Lithonia CFL porch light aren't very good light-wise compared to the older Lights of America. LOA lights used a biax tube and Lithonia uses a corkscrew cfl that doesn't put out near as much light.

On the other hand the Lithonias work reliably in wet locations and don't flicker at dusk and dawn because they have a better photocell.

The Lithonia has a self-ballasted lamp, the LOA used a plain biax tube.

But, yeah, 7 or 9 watts of LED light would be more than enough, I just don't see any at the Home Depot or Lowes.